High-profile days behind Jags coach

Lucious Selmon has fond memories of the days almost three decades ago when he and two brothers, Lee Roy and Dewey, formed the University of Oklahoma defensive line.

"I wish there was some kind of way I could put it into words, but it just brings a smile to my face and lights me up every time I think about it," the Jaguars' defensive line coach said.

As a senior in 1973, Lucious Selmon was the nose guard when Lee Roy, who would become a Hall of Famer with the Tampa Bay Buccaneers, and Dewey stepped into the outside positions as sophomores on the Oklahoma three-man defensive front.

"Gosh, I can't describe how satisfying it was [to play with his brothers]," he said. "It was a just a great, great thrill. It wasn't one of those deals where I felt I had to look out for my baby brothers. I knew when they took the field they could take care of themselves.

"You would go into each other's room on Friday night, and we had things to talk about that nobody else's teammates even came close to talking about. We just bonded together."

Like all Jaguars assistant coaches, Selmon keeps a low public profile. He still gets recognized at times, especially when he visits Oklahoma.

Lucious Selmon

Position: Jaguars defensive line coach.

Age: 51.

College: Oklahoma, three-year starter, All-American, defensive player of the year in the Big Eight in his senior season and runner-up in the balloting for the Outland Trophy and Lombardi Award.

College coaching experience: Oklahoma, 1976-1994.

Pro coaching experience: Jaguars, 1995 to present.

Fifth in a series of profiles of Jaguars' assistant coaches.

Though he's sometimes confused with Lee Roy, he said: "Some fans will recognize you, which is gratifying. I call them perks. The older you get, the more gratifying they are."

Despite their success on the football field, the Selmons grew up thinking about playing basketball, not football.

"We didn't really like football," said Lee Roy, who was recently named athletic director at the University of South Florida.

"[Basketball] was where I saw most of the black athletes having success," Lucious said. "I just wasn't paying any attention to football."

The elementary school they attended in Eufaula, Okla., town of 2,500, was still segregated in those days and didn't have a youth football program.

That's why the three oldest Selmon brothers never even played football.

The Selmons' path to the football field started when the high school coach, Paul Bell, spotted Lucious, the seventh child in the family, on the playground.

"He probably thought I flunked a grade or two. I was towering over a bunch of other kids. I guess when I was in the seventh grade, I weighed close to 170 pounds and was nearly as tall as I am now, about 5-9, 5-10," Lucious said.

Once Bell found out Lucious hadn't flunked a grade, but was big for his age, he recruited him for the junior high track team and the next year asked him if he wanted to play football.

"He was a very, very big inspiration in my life," Selmon said of Bell, who also stressed the importance of an education to Selmon.

The Selmons also had a natural strength and conditioning program: working on the family farm. They didn't have tractors; they farmed with mules.

"I'll never forget when I was in elementary school and the teacher was asking us what we wanted for Christmas," Lucious said. "The girls were talking about dolls and the boys were saying they wanted trucks and all that stuff. I said I wanted a tractor, and I wasn't a talking about a play tractor. I wanted the real thing. All we could afford was mules."

They lived in a two-bedroom house about the size of a three-car garage. They didn't have indoor plumbing or running water. They got their water from a well and cooked with a wood stove.

Lee Roy Selmon, the ninth child and the baby of the family, said: "Most people would say we were poor, but we didn't even realize we were. Looking at us, we didn't miss too many meals [they grew much of their food] and it was a great way to grow up. We worked hard and had a lot of fun and loving parents."

Lee Roy recalled the time the three brothers piled a ton of hay on a narrow wagon. Lucious was driving the mules and Lee Roy and Dewey were on top of the pile of hay. They didn't tie it tight enough and when they hit a ridge, the hay started falling off and Lee Roy and Dewey rode the hay to the ground.

"We didn't get hurt, but I'm sure a lot of folks thought we looked like the three stooges. We have a lot of stories like that," he said.

The stories added to the legend of the Selmons in their days at Oklahoma, during which some fans raised signs in the stands reading: "Thank you, Mrs. Selmon."

After graduating from Oklahoma, Lucious played a year and a half in the World Football League before it folded in 1975. He tried a couple of business ventures before his college coach, Barry Switzer, called to offer him a job in 1976. He coached 19 years at Oklahoma, 13 under Switzer and six under Gary Gibbs, who was promoted to the head job when Switzer was forced out.

After Gibbs resigned during a 6-6 season in 1994, his replacement, Howard Schnellenberger, announced he would retain Selmon. But Selmon felt it was time for a change.

One of those rare coaches who has never been fired, Selmon was hired by coach Tom Coughlin in January of 1995 to coach the Jaguars' strongside linebackers. It was a smooth transition for Selmon.

"Oklahoma was a top-rate program and Jacksonville is the same way. The experience here has been good," he said.

Selmon, 51, enjoys being out of the spotlight. His wife and children are not mentioned in his bio in the team's media guide and he asked that they not be included in this profile.

Selmon has a new role this year as the defensive line coach, replacing John Pease, who became the defensive coordinator.

"This is a new challenge for me," Selmon said. "It's one that I welcome and one that I'm truly excited about."

His style is to set high standards for his players and he wants them to be aggressive.

"I don't curse my players, but I think a person's demeanor probably speaks more than his words do. They know exactly when I'm upset. We're here to win football games and the only way we're going to do that is to be aggressive," he said.

Staff writer Vito Stellino can be reached at (904)359-4279 or via e-mail at vstellino@jacksonville.com.